3. Journalism and Social Media Audiences

Abstract

This chapter explores the traditional ‘recipients’ of journalism—the news media audience. This chapter focusses on the apparent empowerment of audiences on social media and the dominance of their preferences in the creation and consumption of news. Bossio argues that the empowerment of social media audiences has created new social roles and ‘rules of engagement’ in participatory forms of social media communication. This chapter uses a case study of the Egyptian Arab Spring to chart these changes, illustrating how the news audience has changed and, secondly, contextualising the new audience–journalist relationship using journalism norms of professional practice.

Bossio, D., & Bebawi, S (2013). War of Worlds? Alternative and mainstream journalistic practices in coverage of the ‘Arab Spring’ protests. In J. E. Hayes, K. Battles, & W. Hilton-Morrow (Eds.),
War of the words to social media: Mediated communication in times of crisis (pp. 189–211). New York: Peter Lang.

Brodin, S. (2011, October 21). In the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolutions, journalists ask, who is a journalist?
European Journalism Centre Magazine. Retrieved from
http://​www.​ejc.​net/​magazine.